Postgame Quotes

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
Postgame quotes following Maryland's 10-8 loss to North Carolina.

Maryland Head Coach John TillmanOn how North Carolina's attack creates difficulty:
"They're just really fast. I guess not so much their size, I mean sometimes when you get in your goal line you have to really drop your levels. Your defensemen really have to drop their hips to be able to [defend] them. If not, you're going to be up on their shoulders and up in their head. I think more so, just their speed; they're really quick. All those guys can dodge you whether it's [Marcus] Holman, [Joey] Sankey or [Jimmy] Bitter. Their speed does so much, they seem to do a great job on the ride, they do a great job on ground balls, and they move the ball really well. So, having that speed is a nice thing to have."

On if losing a game is a relief or takes the pressure off going undefeated:
"No, I'd never say that, though I understand what you mean. I'd rather have a win and have some teachable moments then force a loss to be able to reinforce some things. The coaches never talk about where we're ranked and whether we're undefeated or not. Honestly, I know right now we're going to break down the film tomorrow and watch Virginia play today and get moving on them. We don't really define ourselves except for what we see and what we feel like we need to work on. The season is long, and by the end of it you hope you have a good sense of where you are, what your parts are, what you're good at, and you hope you're playing your best at the end. All the while, you're trying to win every game, and it's not easy to do. There are so many good teams, and [North] Carolina is certainly one of them. We're going to see a lot more of them down the stretch, and we have to play better than we did today for 60 minutes. "

On what he would change if they play North Carolina again:
"I think we just need to get in the flow of the game offensively a little bit better. We had a lot of short possessions. It's funny, the first possession we kind of banged the ball and got a good one, and then it felt like we kind of got out of the flow. Give credit to [Kieran Burke], I think he made some good saves and took away some of our opportunities. Sometimes when you have some good looks and you have a chance to get some momentum, the goalie will make a couple saves. All of the sudden the next time if you turn it over, it's four or five minutes since you had the ball or since you had a really good opportunity on offense. You lose that flow, and obviously if you're able to win faceoffs that it allows you to play a little bit more comfortably."

Junior Goalie Niko AmatoOn if the loss would impact the team's morale:
"No. We're a confident bunch of guys that bring our lunch pails to practice every day. We're a veteran group, so we've lost games before. Obviously no one wants to lose games, but I expect on Monday we'll be a focused and competitive group of Terps who come to practice."

On what he saw from UNC's attack:
"I feel like our coaches said it best when we scouted them, their attack is pretty much the heart and soul of their team. They played a good game. Early on I thought they got a couple quick ones on us. Once we really settled into the game, we did better, but we just needed to get more stops today."

On being a leader and treating the loss as just part of the season:
"Our seniors already addressed that in the locker room. We're upset that we lost, especially to an ACC opponent, but as important as this game was it doesn't make or break our season. We're probably going to see them again down the road. Right now we have a Virginia team next week that we have to go down and travel to. Our coach said we are either going to go up or down from that game, so we're trying to move past this loss. Right now we're going to start focusing on our next game at Virginia."

Senior Midfielder Jake Bernhardt On the loss:
"It's pretty disappointing. It's our first loss of the season, and we never go into a game expecting to lose. They were a good team; they came out and played fast right away. We just didn't match their intensity or their speed during the game."

On why the offense couldn't get into a rhythm:
"We just never really got into a rhythm, and their goalie played well. He made some key saves for them, and he kept them in the game."